Invisible Women

Women & the Dead 5

By tomorrow morning, the woman down the hall will be dead. We wish this were some kind of petty prediction, God knows we do, but this is all true. We wish it weren’t because the truth of the matter is that we love the woman down the hall. She is our favorite tenant, but the woman down the hall, she’s cursed with clairvoyance, and she’s known since she was a child. She’s known exactly when she would die.

We remember the very first time we met her. She came to see the open apartment, and when we saw her that very first time and she saw us, she said, “Yes, this is it. This must be it.” And we had no idea what she meant, but it only took us that one meeting, those first few words, and we fell in love with her. We wanted to know more. We wanted her to stay here with us forever so when she told us about her death, we shut off our ears and refused to listen, but the truth remains that by tomorrow morning, she will be dead, and no matter what we do to try to prevent it, we won’t be able to.

We think it would be horrible to know the things she knows, but the woman down the hall is grateful. That’s the kind of woman she is. She’s the kind of woman it would be impossible not to love, and we hate her for all her kindness and understanding. We hate her for her wisdom. We hate her for her mortality.